He said the new system was needed to allow the authorities to make use of material gathered by MI5 and MI6 that currently cannot be disclosed.

Mr Miliband said: “The Government has taken far too wide an approach to this, suddenly saying that civil cases and inquests will be done in secret.

I think we need to look at a solution that meets the problem that exists and doesn't go far far wider which is the problem with the Government's proposal.”

The Government’s justification is that it sometimes has to settle cases out of court in order to avoid sensitive evidence taken from MI5 and MI6 being made public, preserving relationships with foreign security agencies, and so it claims it is better to have a partial case than none at all.